


Love is a Waiting Game

by Orlha



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-07-15 19:27:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7235530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orlha/pseuds/Orlha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy’s waited for Bucky for so long that it hurts and Steve’s been there the whole time, holding her hand, never realising that she was slowly falling in love with him.</p><p>----</p><p>
  <i>Steve presses a kiss on a temple. Darcy presses her wet face into his side.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>The side of the sofa is still slightly warm when she wakes the next morning with a blanket over her.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love is a Waiting Game

It’s been so long since she remembered the taste of him. Three years and six months since James have been gone, gone from the tower, gone from the Avengers’ active roster. Darcy’s a patient woman, she’s known for her almost infinite patience. Yet when she can barely conjure his face, she knows it’s been too long.

The whole accident was not his fault, Steve knows that and so do the other Avengers. Still he is not a Barnes without the self-guilt. She wants to be there to hold his head at night, whisper that she’s with him, that he’s okay, that he’s not worthless. Bucky wouldn’t even give her that. After the accident, he slips away in the night, without so much as a by your leave or even a bloody note. No word, no text, nothing.

It infuriates her even more that he refuses to pick up her calls, that or he had dropped his phone somewhere to mislead Tony.

“Darcy,” Steve leans against the doorframe with a downwards tilt on his face when he catches her awake in the middle of the night.  He shuffles towards her, hand lightly grazing her cheek as he sinks down beside her on the couch. In the dark living room, the television plays the re-runs of last seasons’ Supernatural. His arm goes around the back of sofa instinctively.

She knows it’s wrong, but she really likes the way Steve is all protective over her. He has that look sometimes when he looks at her. His eyes crinkling at the edges, softening the lines of his face, it reminds Darcy of Bucky. It’s wrong to have a crush on her boyfriend’s best friend, but she does anyway.

Boyfriend.

Would James even still be called that? Her lips tilt further down, shoulders shaking slightly and Steve pulls her into his warm side, perhaps mistaking her shaking for being cold.

He doesn’t ask why she’s awake in the middle of the night, he doesn’t need to. She doesn’t ask if he thinks James would ever return, it’s a question that has hung over them for the last three years.

The unspoken question.

Darcy’s been waiting for James to return. Her life goes on every day like she isn’t missing this big part of her life. Her bed is cold and empty. The thought of going to sleep in that big empty bed just makes her think about how final his leaving might be.

Steve presses a kiss on a temple. Darcy presses her wet face into his side.

The side of the sofa is still slightly warm when she wakes the next morning with a blanket over her.

\----

She dreams of James.

_His calloused hands cupping her face, kissing on her temple. He’s sitting on her bed, illuminated by the morning sun, holding a cup of coffee._

_“It’s morning, love.”_

_“It’s only six,” she mumbles._

_“And an hour more before you need to leave to get to the office on time.”_

_She rolls over, covering her head with her pillow. “Five minutes more.” His arms slide beneath her, throwing her over his shoulder. Darcy shrieks, punching his back. “I hate you, Jaaames.”_

_“No you don’t,” he chuckles. He deposits her in the shower, fitting himself between her legs, his fingers running lower and lower until he’s stroking her covered mound. “I’ll make sure your five minutes more is well-spent,” murmurs James, sotto voce, into her ear but she’s too busy clutching his shoulders, moaning to his attentions._

Her pillow is wet when she wakes, her bed is still empty. There is a gaping hole in her. She can’t do this anymore. She can’t live in this apartment that she once lived with James and Steve. His absence is driving her crazy and despite the fact that she’s still a functioning human, living like this, is no way to live. Like she’s stuck in second gear, unable to move on and be happy. Darcy takes a shaky breath and forces herself to grit her proverbial loins to make the decision that hurts so much.

\----

“I’m leaving,” Darcy declares, dropping her set of keys onto the island.

Steve turns around slowly. His face is void of any expression. It is likely that he already had known this was coming. They all could feel it. She’s waited four years to return, he’s not coming back and she can’t keep waiting for him. In two days Darcy would be thirty-four and she spent eight years with him; and while she still loves James, some days, she struggles to remember why.

“I can’t keep doing this anymore.” She leans heavily on the counter, waiting for Steve to say something, anything. He doesn’t. The silence stretches into a thick, tense blanket.

He still doesn’t say anything, only taking her hand and squeezing it. It is only logical after all. Darcy has to close this chapter before she can move on.

“I’m sorry.”

Steve rounds the counter and takes her in his arms. “Don’t be,” he says. “You tried.” Pursing his lips, he holds her a little longer than normal as though considering his words. Steve doesn’t speak of the words that hover on the edge of his tongue; instead, he lets her go, takes a step back and shrugs. “Has Nat vetted the new place?”

Darcy looks at him shyly. “I was hoping you’d do it.”

“Definitely.”

\----

Leaving was a bad idea. Her new apartment isn’t too shabby, neither is it too big. It fits a sofa and the Tony-sponsored television, and a queen-sized bed in her single bedroom.

Even though it doesn’t rank very much in space, her apartment feels empty when she returns at night. She’s become accustomed to James pottering around the kitchen then later, Steve when he forced her to move into the apartment because she was injured. It’s been far too long since she had a whole apartment to herself.

Darcy pops open a can of beer. One beer turns into two, two becomes three. Before she knows it, she’s finished the whole six pack, still awake enough to stare blankly at the Supernatural re-runs.

_A soft graze on her cheek with his finger before the sinking of the sofa beside her._

She misses Steve so badly that it hurts. Why had she moved out? Darcy grabs her jacket, swiping the tears away to dash down the hallway only to run smack into a warm and very firm chest.

“Darcy?”

She lifts her head and sees him staring down at her with a worried frown. Darcy doesn’t answer, hands tugging Steve’s collar down, leaning upwards, pressing her lips against his. He starts at her lips, hands spread out like he’s actually thinking about it then the hesitation disappears. Steve wraps his arms around her, pressing his lips back towards her, banishing the loneliness in her with the surging tide of warmth, leaving her limp and pliant in his arms. He closes the door, grasps her thighs firmly, lifting her and pressing her against the wall. His tongue licking the seams of her lips. She parts her lips for him, hands running down the back of his head.

Steve groans when she runs her nails lightly down his scalp and he responds by pressing her closer to the wall, one hand cupping a cheek, the other stroking her hip, sending warm tendrils to her groin.

Tears are rolling down her face. “I’m sorry,” Darcy reiterates. He caresses her cheekbone, wiping her tears away.

“No. Don’t be. God, I waited so long to do that,” he murmurs with a sigh. “But you’re Bucky’s girl and you’re still waiting for him.”

“A long time?”

“I missed you when I was busy finding James and when I did,” he leans his forehead against hers. “It was clear you loved James. I couldn’t…”

He caresses her cheekbone. “I couldn’t ask you out when you were still waiting for him. Couldn’t steal a man’s girl while he was away.”

“He just upped and left. No note, no calls, _nothing_ ,” her voice cracks at the last word.

“But still you love him.” He shifts his face, resting his chin on her head. “I will never hold it against you.”

“I _love_ you too.”

Steve rubs her head, a forlorn look setting over his face. Hands slowly backing from her, he says, “I can’t do this. I can’t do this to both of you.”

“Us _both?_ ” she shakes her head and chuckles mirthlessly. “There’s no us. He _left._ ”

“He left because he hurt you. He thought you would be better without him.”

“He _left_ when I _needed_ him the most!” voice rising in volume, hurt ringing loudly in the silence that follows. “It’s true that he broke my arm and my leg. It’s true that he hurt Clint, Tony… you. But I was there. I was in pain. I _needed_ him to hold me, I needed him to be the one who helped me through physio. Instead he just left.” Darcy wraps her arms around herself, trying to stem the tide of loneliness and exhaustion. “I love you Steve. I need you.”

“I…” he runs a weary hand down his face, muttering a loud _shit_ before tilting her face up, capturing her lips with his. Their first kiss had been full of anger, frustration, twined with sexual tension; their second kiss is soft, gentle, lingering and full of quiet worship as Steve maps her mouth with his lips and tongue. He tastes like black coffee, joy and happiness and wonderfully perfect.

They’ll be okay, _together_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s supposed to be a one-shot… where Bucky comes back.. and they get back together…… But Steve kinda kissed Darcy on his own.. >.> So Yea.. sorry, not really. But I got stuck on Bucky returning for several days and figured. Oh might as well make it into a 2 parter. So yea. Don’t be mad... 
> 
> Not the fastest writer..... so >_> ;; if this doesn't get finished within 2 weeks or so, you might wanna come and poke me on [tumblr](http://luna-orlha.tumblr.com/) ...


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